Sunday, July 15, 2012

Erik Zamani

Hi everyone! I just got to screen another short film I wanted to spread the word about, Sezen Kayhan's Erik Zamani (A Time for Plums)--it's a deeply-felt, whimsical film I think NHFF filmgoers will love. I hope you had a great time at last week's festival, and found some new favorite films!

Erik Zamani

Dir. Sezen Kayhan

Sezen
Kayhan’sErik Zamani (Time
of the Plums) follows a little girl with a secret, and the enigmatic,
animatedway she perceives. The film also
captures something of Toni Morrison’s or Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s magical realism. Erik Zamani is set in the real world but
vibrates with imaginative energy: pink and purple chimes tinkle as the
protagonist (the unnamed little girl) walks by; yellow sun falls on her
grandfather’s face so she can see every contour and shadow. The most striking
image of the film is a painting that melts to the little girl’s touch: as the
colors run together, the face in the painting morphs through grotesque and
gorgeous shapes. This shot alone makes it difficult to imagine Erik Zamani is a student film.

Kayhan also pays great attention to sound design. Ambient
noises are amplified, and form a striking contrast against silent moments. Both
become uniquely important to the story and the little
girl’s perception, as well as the viewer’s. As integral as the visual is, the
aural landscape of Erik Zamani
creates the feeling that objects have a life of their own.

As the close tie between character and environment suggests,
meaning comes from internal realities, not external ones, in Erik Zamani. In contrast to Jean
Renoir’s films, for instance, where meaning comes largely from social
interactions, inner realities, and the ways they mark one’s experience matter
to Kayhan. The world of the film also seems deeply personal, as the last line
of the film indicates—this is a world that is thoughtfully, tenderly rendered.